Methods of manufacturing knitted goods incorporating darts, and articles obtained thereby



March 26, 1968 M. COINTE- 3,374,645

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING KNITTED GOODS INCORPORATING DARTS, AND ARTICLES OBTAINED THEREBY Filed Nov. 5, 1964 i JQ 32 3s EF 33 United States Patent 0 3,374,645 METHODS OF MANUFACTURING KNITTED GOODS INCORPORATING DARTS, AND ARTICLES OBTAINED THEREBY Marcel Lon Cointe, Nantenil-les-Meaux, France, assignor to Etablissements Gaston Verdier, Paris, France, a corporation of France Filed Nov. 5, 1964, Ser. No. 409,105 Claims priority, application France, Nov. 8, 1963, 953,248 12 Claims. (CI. 66-89):

This invention relates essentially to a method of manufacturing knitted goods on straight frame or knitting machines, full fashioned hosiery machines, such as Cottons system machines or the like, with a view to form darts on said goods for shaping same as desired.

In the manufacture of closefitting knitted goods formed with spaced darts it is known to cut the knitted fabric according to a pattern, the dart being obtained by cutting out a narrow piece of the fabric and by stitching or sewing the resulting edges together by means of an overedge or overcast seam. By this method the darts are characterized as a rule by an unpleasant bulge or excess thickness, and besides ladders or unravelled or run loops or distorted or drop stitches are likely to occur in the vicinity of these darts.

The method constituting the subject-matter of this invention permits the forming of seamed darts on a Cottons system machine, and the darts thus obtained have a neat appearance from the dual point of view of stitches and of the absence of any excess thickness of material.

The method according to this invention is remarkable notably in that after having knitted a continuous fabric panel or hosiery blank portion up to the place selected for making a dart starting therefrom, the machine is operated to proceed with knitting and narrowing so as to form a slit in the knitted material thereby dividing it into two strips or bands which are subsequently knitted separately with or without narrowings (any narrowing phases being followed, in case of need, by widening phases) on the adjacent or confronting side edges of said slit or said strips, and, after having knitted these strips with a same number of courses, the loops of the endmost or last course of one strip are transferred or shifted by a distance equal to the slit width and knitted together with the first adjacent loop of the other strip thereby joining both edge ends of the slit to make up a single strip.

In this manner a slit is formed of which the mutually adjacent side edges are linked or looped together or united through any other means such as sewing in order to make up the desired dart by merging or joining the inner selvages of and along said slit.

This method is particularly advantageous in those cases wherein the knitted goods, for instance skirts, comprise a waistband or like welt positioned above the darts. In this case the waistband is held over and therefore mounted temporarily or kept dormant or idle underneath the knock over comb or movable knock over bit bed of the knitting machine until the skirt panel being knitted has been completed up to above its dart gaps and then the waiting stitches of the waistband are knitted or are linked, hooked, stitched or looped on the skirt panel after knitting one or more courses of said panel above the dart gaps subsequently to the loop transfer operation closing the dart gaps at their top ends. Then the knitting operation of the skirt panel proper is continued from its top below the waistband to make a number of courses constituting a flap piece or strip forming. a support to be turned down on which a skirt lining can be mounted.

This invention is also concerned, by way of novel industrial products, with hosiery or like knitted goods such as footwears, jersey suits or underclothing and underwear, skirts, sweaters, pull-overs, sweat-shirts, etc. manufactured according to the method broadly set forth hereinabove.

Other features of this invention will appear as the following description proceeds, in which stress will be laid notably on the manner in which the various component elements of a Cottons system machine are arranged and operated for carrying out the method disclosed hereinabove.

In the attached diagrammatic drawings given by way of example only:

FIGURE 1 illustrates diagrammatically a Cottons system machine wherein the ticklers or narrowing fingers or loop transfer point combs are disposed with a view to form two darts;

FIGURE 2 is another diagrammatic view showing the arrangement of the inner and outer selvedge or yarn carrier rod stops of the Cottons system machine of FIG- URE l, and

FIGURE 3 shows the manner in which the dart top end closing transfer is effected in a Cottons system machine.

FIGURES 1 to 3 of the drawings, show each one specific arrangement, tackle, attachment, appliance or device of a Cottons system machine for knitting and shaping the upper part of the back or rear and front portions or panels of a skirt comprising two darts on each of said back and front portions.

In these drawings there is designated by the reference letters AB, CD and EF the last courses of stitches. There is shown more particularly at AH and FG the lateral narrowings on the back and front portions of the skirt, respectively on the left-hand and right-hand sides, and the reference letters BYC and DZE designate the left-hand and right-handindentations, notches or recessed gaps, respectively, the edges of which will be interconnected by a subsequent knitting or linking on or looping operation with a view to make the darts. In the example illustrated the skirt is knitted by commencing from the bottom. Of course the skirt may be knitted according to any desired and known kniting technique, such as plain, rib, tuck pattern or the like.

Considering more particularly FIGURE 1, it will be seen that to make an indentation like a substantially V- shaped notch or indentation BYC, inner selvedge ticklers narrowing fingers or point combs 10, 12 disposed on either side of this indentation are used, and that to make an indentation like indentation DZE other inner selvedge ticklers narrowing fingers or point combs 14, 16 are used. Ticklers 10 and 14 on the one hand, and 12 and 16 on the other hand, are connected respectively to narrowing bars 18, 29 slidably driven by internally screw-threaded follower nuts 22 and 24 respectively, engaging respective sections of a screw-threaded rod or spindle 26 which have opposite pitches or oppositely threaded portions. This arrangement permits of forming exactly the same dart at both locations BYC and DZE. The, narrowings on the outer selvedges AH-FG are obtained by means of the ticklers narrowing fingers or point combs usually provided to this end and not shown in FIGURE 1 to simplify the drawing.

The relative arrangement of the inner and outer selvedge or yarn carrier rod stops as well as that of the various yarn carrier rods appear clearly from FIGURE 2. In this figure the reference numeral 1. designates the hatched area corresponding to the lower or bottom portion of the knitted skirt panel or blank before the level where the indentations begin; overlying this area is the HABY trapezium located on the left-hand upper side of theskirt panel or blank. On the other hand, another trapezium 2 and a complementary trapeziunr are defined by points YCDZ and ZEFG, respectively. The yarn carries No. l, 2 and 3 mounted on the yarn carrier rods 31, 32 and 33 respectively are designated bythe symbols J1, J2 and J3 respectively. Yarn carrier rod No. 1 (31) is used to feed yarn for knitting area ABYH, yarn carrier rod No. 2 (32) for knitting area CDZY and yarn carrier rod No. 3 (33) for knitting area EFGZ. The drawing also shows at 34 the left'hand yarn carrier slide or feed and at 35 the right-hand yarn carrier slide or feed, forming adjustable yarn carrier rod stops. Three dimension lines are used in the figure to illustrate the yarn carrier rod stops corresponding to the permissible strokes AB, CD and EF respectively. The movable or adjustable yarn carrier rod stops provided for determining the position of selvedges BY and EZ 'are designated by the reference numerals 37 and 38 respectively.

As will appear from the above description given in connection with FIGURE 2 it will be seen that the parallel edged back or front panel portion of the skirt is straight knitted up to level HYZG in the conventional manner upon starting from the bottom of the skirt, and that from this level upwards indentations are formed by making the narrowings by means of the ticklers 10, 12 and 14, 16 driven from the oppositely threadedvscrew spindle 26. The inner selvedges YC, DZ are made by using the stops formed by the yarn carrier slides or feeds moving parallel to these selvedges. Thus, in the interval between the courses HYZG and ABCDEF, the progressively narrowed inner selvages BY, CY, and DZ, EZ are produced for the respective V-notches by periodically shoggin-g or shifting away from each other the pairs of point combs 10, 12 and 14, 16, respectively, whereas the outer selvages AH and FG are formed by progressive narrowing effected by periodic inward shogging or shifting of the outer selvage loop transfer point combs (not shown) relative to each other. From the course HYZG; three yarn carriers are substituted for the one which has been used up to that course. Obviously, when the knitted article to be made differs from the skirt illustrated and if the relative spacing of the darts does not vary, fixed yarn carrier rod stops may be used.

The driving of the left-hand and right-hand yarn carrier rods 31, 33 is not attended by any specific difliculty. The yarn carrier rod 32 knitting the central portion can advantageously be driven by friction controlled preferably at half-speed, to avoid shocks or stress applied to a high-speed friction drive without shock absorber. The yarn carrier rod operates positively only towards the center of the needle bed knitting head or working section; therefore, even under half-speed conditions, the rocking or sinking or tucking motion can in no way interfere with the yarn carrier stroke.

FIGURE 3 illustrates the manner in which the dart forming loop transfer is carried out to close the upper notch openings BC and DE to provide a continuous course AF extending throughout the width of the panel. To this end special loop transfer point combs or ticklers 41, 42 driven from two point comb holder bars 43, 44 respectively moving independently of each other in either direction are used and these ticklers which are conventional and available on any fiat or straight frame hosiery 'machine are of sufficient length to span the needles required for the knitting of the terminal courses AB and EF, respectively. These bars are controlled by means of a double screw spindle, with oppositely threaded portions, 45 driven either manually or preferably from automatic means so that it can be used if desired for making certain hemstitched patterns.

When the knitting of the last course AB, CD, EF has been completed, both groups of stitches or yarn loops falling along lines A to B and E to F are each one transferred by a distance equal to the gap top opening width BC, DE, respectively, through the conventional narrowing method respectively bybodilyshifting the ticklers 41, 42

inwards, i.e., towards each other, so that the innermost end point of tickler 41 is moved from B to C and the innermost end point of tickler 42 is moved from E to D so that the innermost loops B, E of the respective courses AB, EF are brought together with the adjacent endmost loops C, D respectively of the centre course CD thereby forming an aggregate single course AF, and since the width of the knitted article has been reduced to the extent corresponding to the width of said dart notches, the waist-.

band can now be knitted on, linked on, stitched on or looped to the panel or blank along and to form a continuous course AF for example.

According to a specific form of embodiment, the waistband is run-on or topped beforehand on a transferring bar and thereby placed on the needles to temporarily remain under the knock over comb or bit bed and upon tilting the needle bar subsequently raised to come below the skirt panel and above the knockover comb, and after knitting one or several courses of the skirt panel, the waistband is assembled with the skirt panel. The following courses knitted on the skirt panel maybe used subsequently for supporting a skirt lining. The waistband thus used may advantageously be obtained by knitting an open tubular jersey blank to permit the insertion of an elastic so-called gros-grain (thick ribbon for reinforcing the waistband of the skirt) into said waistband. Alternatively, the waistband may be formed on a separate flat knitting frame. In this latter instance, the Waistband would be topped on a transferring bar and thereby run on the needles of the skirtmaking machine. The portion to be knitted, linked or looped or to.be transferred to the skirt is knitted as a single-face jersey.

According to an alternative embodiment, the waistband may be obtained directly on the Cottous system machine by following exactly the reverse procedure; in other words, after having completed the dart notch top end closing transfer, the panel is passed under the knockover comb to be held there below; then it is sufiicient to knit'a welt-like turn which is closed by launching or turning it up by means of the transferring bar to run it on the needles while simultaneously passing the panel above the knock over comb and then knitting the courses of same which are to constitute the flap-like support for the skirt lining or foundation slip. I

In the foregoing indentations comprising only narrow ings are described but it is obvious to anybody conversant with the art that the darts can be obtained by making firstlyrnarrowings and then widenings, notably when it is desired to fit certain portions of a knitted dress, gown or garment in the waist area above the hips for example to' make a skirt which is full at the hips but gathered at the waist. In any case Whatever the shape of the darts to be obtained these result from closing the gaps left by the indentations by joining their inner selvages preferably by linking or stitching on or through any other known and suitable method.

It is clear that the articles, sweaters, skirts, garments,

7 having a particularly neat appearance.

All the defectsobserved on cut articles are avoided,

and any losses of material such as due to waste cut portions are eliminated completely. The manual cutting and whipstitching or overidge seaming operations are suppressed, the darts obtained are extremely flat and any risk of ladder or drop stitch 'or runner formation or distorted stitches is definitely precluded.

Of course, this invention should not be construed as being limited by the specific forms of embodiment shown and described herein, since many modifications and-variations may be brought thereto without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A method of manufacturing knitted goods, provided with dart means, on a flat, straight frame, full-fashioned hosiery machine, comprising operating the latter to successively effect the steps of: knitting a fabric blank panel portion upon starting from the bottom thereof up to the level selected for making at least one dart start from a point thereon by feeding yarn to the active needles from at least one yarn carrier; proceeding with knitting courses on either side of said point while progressively narrowing them outwards by sidewise shifting the yarn loops in opposite directions to the left hand side and to the right hand side of said point, respectively, by means of at least two regular loop transfer point combs carried by narrowing fingers moving laterally outwards relative to each other, so as to form at least one diverging slit dividing the knitted material at and from said point into two strips separately and substantially simultaneously knitted each one with the same number of courses fed by at least two yarn carriers, respectively, replacing the aforesaid single one, said strips extending upwards from said level and having progressively outward narrowed, inner selvages issuing from said point to define an at least approximately V-shaped notch therebetween; and transferring all the stitches of the last knitted course of one strip by a distance substantially equal to the gap top width of said notch corresponding to the spacing between the inner selvage top ends, by means of at least one tickler having a point comb length substantially equal to the length of said last knitted course of said one strip so as to span the active needles required for the knitting of said last knitted course, whereby the innermost end loop of said course is brought and knitted together with the adjacent innermost end loop of the last knitted course of said other strip to form a resulting single aggregate course joining both strip tops into a single continuous one of Wider area and closing the top gap of said notch which thus becomes an elongated narrow slit with a closed contour.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein at least one additional course is knitted along and above said single aggregate course to form a single panel portion of wider area.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the adjacent inner selvages of each slit are connected together therealong to form the desired dart.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the outermost side edges of said panel are progressively narrowed while knitting said strips by means of outer selvage narrowing point combs shifted occasionally inwards towards each other.

5. A methol according to claim 1, for making a skirt provided above said dart means with a Waistband previously made on a separate flat knitting machine, comprising the steps of topping said waistband on a transferring bar and running it thereby on the needles of the skirt making hosiery machine to temporarily remain dormant below the knock over comb thereof until the skirt panel being knitted has been completed up to above its dart slit means; raising said waistband above said knock over comb to come below said skirt panel top; knitting at least one additional course on and along said skirt panel top above the dart slit means and subsequently to the loop transfer step closing the top end of each dart gap; and knitting said waistband on and along said panel top.

6, A method according to claim 5, wherein the adjacent inner selvages of each slit are connected together therealong to form the desired dart,

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the outermost side edges of said skirt panel are progressively narrowed while knitting said strips by means of outer selvage narrowing point combs shifted occasionally inwards towards each other.

8. A method according to claim 1 for making a skirt provided above said dart means with a waistband directly made on the same machine, comprising the steps of knitting at least one additional course on and along the skirt panel top above the dart slit means after the loop transfer step closing the top end of each dart gap; passing said skirt panel under the knock over comb to be kept dormant therebelow; knitting the waistband and passing said skirt panel above said knock over comb and knitting its top on said waistband.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the adjacent inner selvages of each dart slit are connected together therealong to form the desired dart.

10. A method according to claim 1 for making a skirt provided above said dart means with a waistband knitted as an open tubular jersey blank to be knitted to said skirt panel and after this last knitting step knitting further additional courses along said skirt panel top to form a flaplike fabric portion to be turned down for fastening a skirt lining thereto, and further comprising the steps of topping said waistband on a transferring bar and running it thereby on the needles of the skirt-making hosiery machine to temporarily remain dormant below the knock over comb thereof until the skirt panel being knitted has :been completed up to above its dart slit means, raising said waistband above said knock over comb to come below said skirt panel top, knitting at least one additional course on and along said skirt panel top above the dart slit means and subsequently to the loop transfer step closing the top end of each dart gap, and knitting said waistband on and along said panel top.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein adjacent inner selvages of each slit are connected together there along to form the desired dart.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein the outermost side edges of the skirt panel are progressively narrowed while knitting said strips by means of outer selvage narrowing point combs shifted occasionally inwards towards each other.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,637,201 7/1927 Oberstebrink 66-176 2,083,869 6/1937 Schuessler 66-176 2,734,360 2/1956 Zesch 66189 X 3,117,433 1/1964 Gordon et al. 66176 3,176,480 4/ 1965 Gordon et al 66177 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,223,356 2/1960 France.

WM. CARTER REYNOLDS, Primary Examiner. 

1. A METHOD OF MANUFACTURING KNITTED GOODS, PROVIDED WITH DART MEANS, ON A FLAT, STRAIGHT FRAME, FULL-FASHIONED HOSIERY MACHINE, COMPRISING OPERATING THE LATTER TO SUCCESSIVELY EFFECT THE STEPS OF: KNITTING A FARBIC BLANK PANEL PORTION UPON STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM THEREOF UP TO THE LEVEL SELECTED FOR MAKING AT LEAST ONE DART START FROM A POINT THEREON BY FEEDING YARN TO THE ACTIVE NEEDLES FROM AT LEAST ONE YARN CARRIER; PROCEEDING WITH KNITTING COURSES ON EITHER SIDE OF SAID POINT WHILE PROGRESSIVELY NARROWING THEM OUTWARDS BY SIDEWISE SHIFTING THE YARN LOOPS IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS TO THE LEFT HAND SIDE AND TO THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF SAID POINT, RESPECTIVELY, BY MEANS OF AT LEAST TWO REGULAR LOOP TRANSFER POINT COMBS CARRIED BY NARROWING FINGERS MOVING LATERALLY OUTWARDS RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER, SO AS TO FORM AT LEAST ONE DIVERGING SLIT DIVIDING THE KNITTED MATERIAL AT AND FROM SAID POINT INTO TWO STRIPS SEPARATELY AND SUBSTANTIALLY SIMULTANEOUSLY KNITTED EACH ONE WITH THE SAME NUMBER OF COURSES FED BY AT LEAST TWO YARN CARRIERS, RESPECTIVELY, REPLACING THE AFORESAID SINGLE ONE, SAID STRIPS EXTENDING UPWARDS FROM SAID LEVEL 